In fact in many cases the most expensive (e.g. capital-intensive) investments in new opportunities such as medicine and renewable energy (investments with high market and technological risk) are being made by the public sector (GWEC 2012). [Mazzucato] Fried, L., S. Shukla and S. Sawyer, eds. 2012. Global Wind Report: Annual Market Update 2011. Global Wind Energy Council (March).

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** key factor adding to the growth of the wind energy sector has been the support from public sector investment over the past three years. Several governments provided considerable support for the renewable energy sector as part of their stimulus packages** Global clean energy investment reached a new record of $260 billion (See figure above) in 2011. This characterizes a key milestone for a sector that enjoyed an average compound annual growth rate of 37% between 2004 and 2008, but then saw growth slowdown in the face of the widespread recession in 2009. The majority of investment in 2011 was the asset financing of utility-scale projects such as wind farms, solar projects and biofuel plants Major beneficiaries from this increased lending by development banks are the mature clean energy technologies like wind, solar and biomass. Wind has been the single largest beneficiary of these investments to date, receiving $7.2 billion in 2010 alone (BNEF, 2011). In 2011, wind projects made up more than 28% of the $260 billion investment in clean energy projects. A significant portion of this investment was from public sector institutions.

The most visible patient capital made available to renewable technology manufacturers and developers has been delivered through national and multilateral development banks. [...] Indeed, the Climate Policy Initiative reports that in 2012 institutional investors, including insurance companies, pension funds, foundations and endowments, contributed only US$0.4bn to climate change mitigation and adaptation projects (a minimal figure considering the US$70trn in assets that they manage). Meanwhile, venture capital, private equity and infrastructure funds invested only US$1.bn.

This work is based on a revised and significant expansion of a report I wrote for DEMOS, a UK-based think tank, on The Entrepreneurial State. Unlike a more traditional academic piece of writing – that can take years from start to finish – I wrote the DEMOS work in a style similar to the political pamphlets of the 1800s: quickly, and out of a sense of urgency. I wanted to convince the UK government to change strategy: to not cut State programmes in the name of making the economy ‘more competitive’ and more ‘entrepreneurial’, but to reimagine what the State canand must do to ensure a sustainable post-crisis recovery.